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A Nova Scotia doctor is facing charges of fraud and forgery, but this is not his first brush with the law. Dr. Dinesh Sinha (Sihn-Ha), who was arrested in connection with a pot bust last year, will appear in court on August 27on unrelated charges. He is accused of creating false records and billing the province for work that he did not do.

Sinha’s lawyer did not return phone calls so it is unclear how these charges came about, but the provincial government does do random checks to ensure that doctors are billing the province accurately. When asked about the charges, Sinha said that he had no comment.

College of Physicians and Surgeons lifts suspension

When Sinha was arrested on December 14, 2012, he was charged with selling prescriptions for medical marijuana. His license to practice medicine was temporarily suspended by the board in charge of disciplining doctors in Nova Scotia. In a phone interview, Dr. Douglas Grant, CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, said, “the suspension was lifted when the committee came to an agreement that the public safety concern had been addressed.” The charge against Sinha for selling medical marijuana prescriptions was eventually dropped.

The college has chosen not to suspend Sinha’s license again in view of these new charges of fraud and forgery. Grant would not comment on the new charges but he did say that the college will wait for the criminal proceedings to play out; then it will determine whether or not further action should be taken. The most serious penalty the college can impose is to revoke or annul a doctor’s license.

Physicians and medical marijuana laws

Sinha is not the first doctor to be nabbed by the long arm of the law in relation to medical marijuana prescriptions. Dr. Rob Kamermans was charged with selling medical marijuana prescriptions and accused of over-prescribing cannabis. He is allowed to practice, but is now restricted from prescribing pot.

In an exclusive interview, Sinha said that he would no longer prescribe medical marijuana despite being a firm believer in its benefits. That interview was conducted before he was confronted about the new charges.

Canada’s medical marijuana laws constantly changing

Canada started offering medical marijuana in 2001. Since then the medical marijuana laws have undergone several changes.

As it stands, patients who are prescribed medical marijuana by a physician have only two options: they can either apply to the government for a license to grow marijuana or they can get their prescribed marijuana from an already licensed grower.

Sinha wonders why the RCMP is so worried about marijuana. He says patients who use drugs like Demerol and morphine are at greater risk of developing addictions than those using marijuana, yet law enforcement does not seem to be concerned with how those drugs are being prescribed or used.

Sinha believes that seeing arrests and charges connected to medical marijuana will discourage doctors like him from prescribing marijuana, even though it may be a safer and more effective treatment for some patients such as those suffering from epilepsy, cancer, anorexia, and other ailments.

However, the number of medical marijuana users actually increased by 104 per cent between January and December 2012 and the number of people licensed to grow it has increased significantly as well.

What’s next for marijuana legislation?

Marijuana has been making headlines recently as Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau publicly advocated for  legalizing the drug. Sinha is on the same page: “Alcohol is much more dangerous than marijuana, yet it is openly sold. I do not understand why the government is so picky about it [marijuana].”

Increasing silver sales is the focus for jewelry giant Tiffany & Co. this year. According to the company’s quarterly report, overall sales are up 9 per cent but silver sales are lagging.

High-end jewelry sells well, silver lags

Tiffany’s more expensive products, which are mostly necklaces and rings made of rare coloured diamonds encased in platinum, are meeting sales goals. On the other hand, silver jewelry, which makes up most of Tiffany’s cheaper products in the form of rings, necklaces and pendants, is selling poorly compared to a few years ago, according to Mark Aaron, Tiffany’s Vice-President of Investor Relations.

In an attempt to improve silver sales, the company is creating and promoting new, elaborate silver items. Some of the new products that landed on shelves this spring include the Ziegfeld collection, which contains several silver items made with freshwater pearls and onyx. Aaron says that these new products have a higher price tag than previous silver pieces. He hopes that when the second quarter report comes out later this month, it will show an increase in profit from silver sales.

Aaron noted that in the past, silver jewelry accounted for a quarter of Tiffany’s sales. He says the company would like to get back to meeting that target. In 2012, silver sales accounted for 21 per cent of the company’s total sales.

Is counterfeiting a contributing factor?

In Tiffany’s 2012 annual report, shareholders were advised that the company has been involved in lawsuits with groups and companies who have been making and selling counterfeit Tiffany products. Most counterfeit Tiffany products are made of silver. Coincidentally, this is also the area where Tiffany is lagging in sales. In the 2012 annual report, Tiffany voiced concerns about the impact counterfeiting could have on the company:

“In recent years, there has been an increase in the availability of counterfeit goods, predominantly silver jewelry, in various markets by street vendors and small retailers, as well as on the Internet. The continued sale of counterfeit merchandise could have an adverse effect on the TIFFANY & CO. brand by undermining Tiffany’s reputation for quality goods and making such goods appear less desirable to consumers of luxury goods. Damage to the Brand would result in lost sales and profits.”

 Wayne Edwards, Chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, says a lot of companies don’t want to talk about counterfeit goods. He says companies don’t want consumers to associate their products with counterfeiting because they may choose to go elsewhere out of fear of not knowing whether they are buying real or counterfeit items.

Edwards also adds that it is difficult for companies like Tiffany to give statistics about counterfeiting. He says everyone knows counterfeit products exist, but that it is difficult to say how prevalent they are or how much they affect sales. The network released a report last year, which states “counterfeiting is responsible for billions of dollars in losses to the Canadian economy.” The federal government introduced new anti-counterfeiting legislation earlier this year, but Edwards says more changes are necessary to deter those making and selling counterfeit products.

Fighting counterfeiting

Groups like the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, based in Toronto, focus on raising awareness about counterfeit goods. They hold seminars and also offer training to groups like the RCMP about identifying counterfeit products.

Edwards offers some simple advice to consumers, “If the price of something, whether it’s a designer ring or an electrical part, seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Betty Bauman’s phone bill nearly doubled in April, but it was worth every penny to hear the joy and surprise in the voices of widows across Nova Scotia, she said in a phone interview.

Bauman’s first husband had only been working for six weeks at a coal mine when he died as the result of a rock fall over fifty years ago. As a 26-year old widow with three young daughters to raise, Bauman simply did not have time to grieve. She moved to Ontario where she focused on working and raising her family. She was also re-married briefly. It was only  when she moved back to Nova Scotia twenty-one years later that she finally got her first chance to really mourn her loss.

Satisfaction for widows across the province

For years, a group of widows has been fighting to change the provincial law governing widow’s workers compensation for those who lost their husbands in workplace accidents. That is why it was so satisfying for Bauman to call the other women to tell them they would be getting around $110,000 in back pay. Bauman says they were all thrilled, but many of them were filled with disbelief. “I said: ‘Well, it’s happening, believe it!’” said Bauman matter-of-factly.

A long battle

Before 1999, widows who remarried no longer received their survivor’s pensions. In the 1990s, several widows protested that this law violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically, the section based on equality, which prohibits discrimination.

In 1999, the law was changed because it discriminated based on marital status. While the change was encouraging, there was a catch; women who remarried before 1985, when the section on equality was added to the constitution, were excluded. This meant that widows like Bauman would only receive compensation from 1999 onwards. She did not think it was fair for them not to be compensated simply because they had remarried.

In the following years, Bauman led the other widows in a campaign to change the law–writing letters, calling politicians, and pleading with community leaders. In 2000, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favour of compensating the widows. However, the government at the time, led by former premier John Hamm, appealed and the decision was overturned. It was a big letdown for the widows who had been granted their wish, only to have it snatched away.

Support and a new bill

Bauman finally found a supporter in Frank Corbett, the Minister of Labour and Advancement Education in Nova Scotia.  She received a call from Corbett the second week of April asking if she and some of the other widows could make a trip to Halifax on the 19th. He told her not to let on to anyone except the widows she was bringing with her that there would be an announcement. Bauman called a few of the other women. “I said, ‘Look, we’ve got to go to the legislature on the 19^th, but you’ve got to promise me that you won’t say a word to anybody. If you do, I’ll kill you!’” she recalled, with a chuckle. Seven widows made it to Halifax to hear an emotional Corbett announce that they would be getting the compensation. A week later the bill was officially passed. The women were thrilled.

Bauman, who will turn 80 next year, says that her late husband often told her that she was too strong and independent. But she’s pretty sure that he would be proud of how she used her strength and independence to tirelessly fight for her cause.

Victims of cyberbullying now have the law on their side to protect themselves from bullies.

The power to report cyberbullies could stop them from spreading private pictures and hateful messages online, according to Glen Canning, Rehtaeh Parson’s father.

When a picture of Rehtaeh’s alleged sexual assault in 2012 was circulating on the Internet, nothing was done to stop it, according to Canning. Rehtaeh was bullied non-stop for two weeks after the assault, according to Canning and the bullying continued for 18 months, until her death.

He says that people wouldn’t spread hateful messages “if they knew police in Halifax were watching them and they are getting their IP address and they’re going to go after them for criminal harassment.”

Nova Scotia’s Cyber Safety Act was first introduced in April, after Rehtaeh was removed from life support following a suicide attempt. The act became active in Nova Scotia on Aug.7.  Justice Minister Ross Landry announced the new legislation which gives victims who are being bullied the power to report their cyberbullies and to file a protection order to stop the circulation of messages about them.

The protection orders, filed to the Justice of the Peace Centre, can identify the cyberbullies through IP addresses and gives the power to restrict bullies from the Internet.

Time to act

“In our daughter’s case, we initially came forward and nothing was done, and it’s shameful,” said Canning.

“There was an opportunity at the very start of this to do something to help her and it’s almost like everyone just watched it happen there and didn’t do anything.”

The important thing, according to Canning is educating people and to give parents the tools and knowledge to fight against cyberbullying. ‘Speak Up!’ a conference in Nova Scotia devoted to bullying awareness, will hold a special seminar for parents called “Parenting in a Digital Age,” and will help teach parents how to talk to their kids about cyberbullying. The conference runs Aug. 16-17.

Landry announced that the changes will also look at the responsibility of the parents of cyberbullies. Parents will now be held legally responsible for cyberbullying, according to the new legislation.

“Bell doesn’t enter into contracts with 15 year old kids, they get that stuff from their parents,” said Canning.

“The kids aren’t the ones who sign those contracts, those contracts are signed by adults and those adults should be responsible for whatever happens on that device … both legally and financially.”

First step for Canada

This cyber-safety law is the first of its kind in Canada, but other provinces, like British Columbia and Saskatchewan have already announced their support for cyberbullying prevention.

Currently, the Government of Canada is also still looking at a report from June that looks into the restrictions of non-consensual distribution of intimate images. Restrictions are what Canning said could have prevented his daughter’s death. In Rehtaeh’s case, he stated, people could have stepped in and more could have been done to prevent her from being bullied.

“I’m happy, that it’s being taken seriously, I really hope that something better can come out of this,” said Canning.

The Cyber-Safety Act includes Canada’s first ever cyberbullying investigative unit, Cyber SCAN, which according to Landry will be starting work in September. The unit, which started hiring on June 6, will have five investigators to look into any claims made under the Cyber Safety Act. Roger Merrick, a former police officer, will direct the unit.

“Like any law though, it’s only going to be as good as the people who enforce it,” said Canning.

With the new enforcement, Canning hopes that people will “understand the consequences of not doing anything or failing to take it seriously.”

Canada’s corrections watchdog remains dismayed by the federal government’s inaction in dealing with offenders with serious mental health issues

Offender self-harm a growing concern

Ivan Zinger, Executive Director and General Counsel, Office of the Correctional Investigator, recently spoke out about the continuing lack of reform by Correctional Services Canada in properly addressing offender self-harm in federal penitentiaries.

Zinger echoed Correctional Investigator Howard Saper’s plea for reform at The Congress on Law and Mental Health in Amsterdam in July where he presented a paper about self-injury in Canadian federal correctional institutions.

Self-injurious behaviour includes the use of razors or other sharp objects for “cutting”, head-banging, self-strangulation and the ingestion or insertion of sharp objects into the body.

Mandate of the Correctional Investigator

The Office of the Correctional Investigator acts as an Ombudsman for federally sentenced offenders.  It represents, therefore, the interests of offenders who are serving a sentence of two years or more.

One of the Investigator’s mandates is to determine whether the Correctional Service of Canada is acting “fairly, reasonably and in compliance with law and policy” when dealing with offenders.  Importantly, the Correctional Investigator makes ongoing recommendations to ensure accountability in Canada’s federal penitentiaries.

In the fiscal year 2011-2012, the Correctional Investigator responded to 5.600 offender complaints and reviewed more than 140 deaths and incidents of serious bodily harm by inmates in the federal penitentiary system.

Self-harm among inmates in Canada

In his Annual Report to Parliament in October 2012, the Correctional Investigator notes that the inmate population across Canada has increased 3.7 per cent since March 2011.

The number of inmates participating in serious self-harm has tripled in the last five years.

Sapers is alarmed by the rapidly increasing rate of self-injury incidents in prisons in general and the the increasing number per offender in particular.

The number of self-harm incidents, compared to the number of inmates involved, rose from 261 per 160 inmates in 2003-2004 to a staggering 901 per 264 inmates in 2012-2013. 

Sixteen per cent of female offenders in medical or psychiatric cells were found to self-injure frequently, compared to seven per cent of male inmates.

Self-harm among women inmates rose from 43 in 2003-2004 to 323 in 2012-2013.

Position  of the Correctional Service of Canada

In Commissioner’s Directive 843 regarding the management of inmate self-injurious and suicidal behaviour, issued on July 21, 2011, the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada states that the policy objective of the Service, when faced with issues of self-harm, is to “ensure the safety of inmates who are self-injurious or suicidal using the least restrictive measures for the purpose of preserving life and preventing serious bodily injury, while maintaining the dignity of the inmate in a sale and secure environment.

The Directive also calls for the immediate transfer of mentally ill inmates to regional treatment centres or appropriate health care facilities if required mental health assessments cannot be facilitated in the regular prison environment.

The Directive also encourages and supports “an interdisciplinary approach so that the inmate can resume regular activities as soon as possible”.

Saper, however, does not believe this directive is being followed consistently in federal penitentiaries across Canada

Recommendations of the Correctional Investigator

Sapers notes that a disproportionate number of self-harm incidents occur when inmates are kept in segregation, forensic psychiatric centres and maximum security institutions where the use of force and physical restraint is often employed to manage self-injurious offenders.

Sapers recommends in his latest annual report that there be an absolute prohibition on the practice of placing mentally ill offenders and those at risk of suicide or serious self-injury in long term segregation.

Sapers stresses that self-injury cases need to be managed as mental health issues and not primarily as security incidents.  He pleads for Correctional Services Canada to expand the use of alternative mental health delivery options, recognizing that a federal institution is not the appropriate place for treating complex cases of self-injury. 

Canada’s first forensic padded cell

Sapers is especially alarmed by the fact that the first padded cell in a forensic facility in Canada was constructed at the Saskatoon Regional Psychiatric Centre in March of 2011.   

The cell was specially built by Correctional Services Canada to accommodate one particular female who engages in chronic self-injury by head-banging.  

In addition to its barren rubberized walls, the space has a primitive grate in its floor, in place of a normal prison toilet.

Corrections Canada maintains the cell was built “for therapeutic reasons” to provide management with the least restrictive environment to address self-injury, and that it was created on the advice of an unnamed internationally-recognized forensic psychiatrist.

To date, the cell has not been occupied and Sapers hopes this fact means that Correctional Services Canada has determined it to be “inappropriate.”   

In Recommendation 16 of his report, Sapers calls for an absolute prohibition of padded cells in all Correctional Services of Canada treatment facilities, stating bluntly that “there is no role for a padded cell in a correctional facility”.

He also notes that the use of padded cells require full-time medical supervision and are controversial even in a mental health setting where the first responders are health care professionals and placement decisions are made exclusively by health care providers.

Self-harm in the spotlight

The issues of self-harm and the treatment of mental health in federal correctional institutions has become prominent in light of the current inquiry into the death of 19 year-old Ashley Smith while in custody at Joliette Federal Institution in 2007.

Of particular concern to the Smith inquiry is the fact that the persons in authority at the Institution who were making daily decisions affecting the mental health and physical well-being of female inmates such as Ashley Smith, had virtually no training in the areas of risk assessment and treatment of offenders with mental health problems – especially those involving serious self-injury.